Grace Leon, treasurer of Ohio COPS and widow of Cleveland police officer Wayne Leon, gives a “thumbs up” to passing motorcyclists who gathered for the seventh annual Cops Ride.
Lynn Ischay/The Plain Dealer
CLEVELAND, Ohio — On June 25, 2000, Grace Leon’s husband, Wayne, was killed during a traffic stop while working as a Cleveland police officer.
He had pulled over Quisi Bryan, a violent felon, when Bryan shot him in the face.
In the years following her husband’s death, Grace Leon became a licensed social worker and eventually a specialist who works with the families of homicide victims.
On Monday, the U.S. Marshals Service announced that Leon and the Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force have earned the agency’s top awards.
At an Aug. 21 ceremony in Washington, D.C., the task force will receive a Distinguished Group Award for a District Task Force. Leon earned the Citizen of the Year Award, in part because of her work in the community and its Fugitive Safe Surrender program.
For years, Leon has been a supporter of the safe surrender program and the fugitive task force, which was formed in her late husband’s memory, according to the agency.
The safe surrender program, which began in 2005, allows people wanted for non-violent felonies and misdemeanors to surrender in a neutral setting, which aims to reduce the chance of an apprehension turning violent, according to the agency’s website.
“It’s fitting that Grace Leon receives this prestigious national award,” Cleveland Police Department Chief Annie Todd said in a statement. “Her volunteer efforts working with families of homicide victims for over two decades have provided not only comfort but a skill she has shared from her personal experiences and her professional education.”
Leon is a crisis intervention specialist who works as a liaison with Cleveland homicide detectives.
“I’m in awe that they selected me,” she said. “I hear the agony in the voices of family members of victims. And every day, I see task force members bring (suspects) in. I am no one compared to them.”
The marshals service in Cleveland leads the fugitive task force, which is comprised of dozens of local law enforcement agencies. Marshal Peter Elliott established it in 2003. Since then, it has arrested more than 55,000 fugitives.
“I’m very glad that we were able to sustain things over the last two decades,” Elliott said.
For the Euclid Police Department, the task force’s work hits particularly close to home. After Euclid Police Officer Jacob Derbin was killed while responding to a domestic violence call, the task force helped track down the suspect, who died during a standoff with police.
“This highest honor was earned by the men and women of the task force who do the incredibly challenging and dangerous work of removing violent fugitives from our streets,” Euclid Police Chief Scott Meyer said in a statement.
